


There Once Was Two Brothers…

by houseofmysteries



Category: Gotham - Fandom
Genre: Abuse, Dysfunctional Family, Gen, Jeremiah reads too much, Jerome suffers because of this, Lila is a bad mother
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-27
Updated: 2018-12-27
Packaged: 2019-09-28 20:49:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17190158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/houseofmysteries/pseuds/houseofmysteries
Summary: Where Jerome tries to protect Jeremiah from his book of stories and Jeremiah takes the stories a bit too seriously (and wants to build a city). Unfortunately for Jerome it does not turn out well.





	There Once Was Two Brothers…

“What are you reading?” Jerome inquires, walking into the bedroom that he shares with his twin brother Jeremiah.

Jeremiah looks up from his book, quietly observing Jerome playing with a soccer ball. It was not their soccer ball, their mother would not let them have one inside the small trailer. The ball was most likely taken from some other kid, which is how Jerome mostly got his new accessories.

“It’s probably a boring science book as usual,” Jerome mumbles, not waiting for Jeremiah’s answer. “You are so predictable.”

“It is not, it’s a book about Greek and Roman myths,” Jeremiah replies, showing the cover to Jerome.

“Like I said, boring,” Jerome replies, rolling his eyes as he kicks his soccer ball.

“It’s not boring,” Jeremiah says as he glares at Jerome. “The book has various stories, one of them is about a minotaur in a labyrinth. The minotaur is killed by Theseus, who gets help by Ariadne to get through the labyrinth.”

“It’s always about mazes with you,” Jerome laughs. “Any other stories that are not about mazes?”

“Yes, not all of them are about labyrinths,” Jeremiah answers glaring at him, he taps the book in annoyance. “There is one myth about twins.”

“Really? There’s a story with twins, I want to see,” Jerome replies enthusiastically, as he grabs the book from Jeremiah’s hands and carelessly looks through the book.

“Where is it?” Jerome says in impatience, he continues to flip through pages. He reaches a page that has a corner folded, indicating a place marker for the reader to return to. “Oh, here it is!” Jerome proclaims, before he reads the story.

_“There once was two brothers, who were also twins and both were destined to create a new city…”_

Jeremiah sighs, knowing that it is futile to take his book back from his brother, he simply waits for Jerome to become bored with the book so he can get it back and return to his reading.

The silence is broken when Jerome looks up from the book, throwing it down onto the ground as if burned. “I don’t like this story, one of them dies. It’s not like us!” Jerome shouts, distressed by the content of the story.

“It’s only a story Jerome,” Jeremiah explains, while picking up the discarded book, he looks for any signs of damage. Jerome hesitantly looks at the book, recovering from his shock.

“I know that, but I still don’t like it, it’s not a good story,” Jerome laughs, shrugging off his previous distress, as he picks up the soccer ball and sits on his bed. “It’s not like us, we will always be together, not like the brothers in that story.”

“I don’t believe it either,” Jeremiah replies calmly, he goes to sit by his brother on his bed. “It’s not suppose to be prophetic.”

Jerome scrunches his face at Jeremiah at a use of an unfamiliar word.

“Though, wouldn’t it be great to create something like they did, or at least try to, like a city?” Jeremiah asks, with a distant look on his face. Jerome looks at him oddly, he is unable to answer Jeremiah’s strange question.

“What would you imagine a city you’d create to be like?” Jeremiah continues, this time waiting for a response.

Jerome flicks Jeremiah’s head, causing his brother to flinch. “You think too much, but if I had to create a city it would be like here, the circus.”

“Really?” Jeremiah says surprised, his eyes wide. “You would create a place that is exactly like where we live now. Nothing new? Nothing more?”

“So? Isn’t the circus the best place?” Jerome answers back feeling reproached. “It’s free, you can do what you want and be what you want.”

“No you can’t!” Jeremiah shouts, interrupting Jerome as he stands up from the bed, clutching the book protectively in his arms.

Jerome frowns, staring at the book which is now being protected, blaming it for causing the argument between him and his brother. “That book is the problem, you read too much. I think you are the one that believes that story, not me!” Jerome shouts at Jeremiah.

He grabs his brother, moving his arms to loosen his hold on the book. Jeremiah struggles, but eventually the book is pulled out from his grasp by Jerome. With the book in Jerome’s possession, he quickly walks away from his brother and outside the trailer. Jeremiah trails behind, begging Jerome for the book back, nearly in tears.

In a large pail Jerome quickly throws in some hay, he lights a flame with matches he took from his mother earlier. Jeremiah grabs Jerome’s shoulders pulling him away, as he reaches out for the book, but he is shoved by Jerome knocking him to the ground. Jeremiah’s glasses falls off his face from the force of being pushed to the ground.

The book is thrown into the fire as flames erupt around it, Jerome’s sacrifice at Jeremiah’s expense.

The trailer door is flown open as a woman comes out, seeing the scene before her; one son in front of a small fire and the other in tears getting up from the ground, recovering his glasses. Lila Valeska knows some mischief has been going on and one of her son’s is hurt.

Jeremiah runs to his mother, tears falling down his face. “Jerome took my book and burned it! I liked that book!”

Lila turns from her crying son, to the one standing hesitantly in front of the fire. “Jerome Valeska, do you know how much books costs?” She shouts intensely, walking slowly to him, her face dark and serious. “Do you know how important it is that Jeremiah has his books to read?”

“Mom,” Jerome shouts, attempting to explain his reason for the book’s destruction. “Jeremiah’s book was bad, it was giving him bad ideas. I was protecting him!”

Before Jerome can say anything else she smacks him across the face. “Do you think we are rolling in money that we can throw anything away?” She screams at Jerome, her voice sharp and piercing, her eyes holding a spark of rage. “I have to stretch our savings to make ends meet! I have two sons that do nothing but leech off me, but you are the worse since you think that I have endless means to afford books for you brats!”

She grabs Jerome by the arm and pulls him towards the trailer. Jerome passes by a silent Jeremiah he attempts to speak to him. “I’m sorry. Jeremiah, please!” He begs.

“Don’t say anything, Jeremiah!” Lila yells sternly, pulling hard on Jerome arm. “Jerome will be learning his lesson about how to not waste my hard earn money.”

Jeremiah’s face unreadable as he stays silent and still, while Jerome continues his pleas with their mother as they go into the trailer. Jeremiah is left alone and forgotten, his face is calm and the tears he cried before have disappeared. Jeremiah’s thoughts is far away from Jerome, his mother and the circus. He thinks about the story of the twin brothers in his book, as Jeremiah vows that he would be the Romulus that lives to build a city and not the unfortunate Remus that dies just before the city is created.

He walks towards the fire, where his book is still being consumed in the flames. One thing that Jeremiah has learnt from reading stories, is that a sacrifice was needed from the hero in order to achieve greatness.

“I will be one that is victorious in the end.” Jeremiah declares quietly to himself as he stares at the flames, his book turns to ashes that scatters in the wind.

**Author's Note:**

> The twin myth Jeremiah is referring to is Romulus and Remus, who were the mythic founders of Rome. (Remus in most versions of the story is killed by Romulus who wants to be the ruler of Rome.) When Jeremiah stands over Jerome’s grave announcing that he is victorious, I could not help but be drawn to the comparison. I also wanted to use the story as a catalyst that fed into Jeremiah’s paranoia about Jerome killing him (one twin has to die) and his need to rebuild Gotham. Jeremiah in this story is very influenced by these stories (such as creating his own labyrinth), which inspire him to create his own stories, so he could fulfill his own Hero’s Journey. He sees this in Bruce and wants to help him fulfill his Hero’s Journey.  
> Comments and Kudos are appreciated. :)


End file.
